Kraus and Van Zyl sparkle on day two of SASHOC National Week
Ruby Kraus and Arista van Zyl were in top form as they led their sides, KwaZulu-Natal Coastal A and Northern Gauteng A, to victories on Monday, the second day of the SASHOC National Week in Bloemfontein.
The tournament began on Sunday, 16 June, and ends with the last of playoff matches on Friday, 21 June.
Catch the action live on SuperSport Schools
Kraus scored three goals across two matches to help KZN Coastal register back-to-back victories and maintain their spot at the summit of Pool B.
The KZN side is one of only two unbeaten teams in the tournament. The other is Natasha le Roux’s Southern Gauteng A. They lead Pool A with three wins from three outings.
Coastals were a better version of themselves when they walked onto the University of Free State’s Field 1 in the first match of the second day. They had shaken off their first day’s nerves and looked comfortable on the ball. Not even the biting Bloemfontein cold could stop them.
“We did a bit of video analysis last night and noted that we let EP into the game yesterday. We spoke about being better in our defensive shape. We felt that let us down against EP,” Jacinta Wedderburn, the Coastal coach, said. “Today they were tight, holding good lines, and turning over the ball convincingly.”
Despite winning their first match 3-1, Wedderburn felt her side had conceded a soft goal that could have been avoided. The coach’s impression of the game was shared by her captain, Tara Pakendorf, who is having an excellent tournament so far.
“I feel like our team played well together,” Pakendorf said. “We had amazing connections throughout the whole game. We had composure on the ball. Everyone was communicating and unselfish and encouraging towards one another.”
Kraus scored a brace as Coastals walloped Northern Free State 8-1, winning by the widest margin of the tournament so far.
“We started hard and finished hard. We scored our last goal in the last second and that showed that we didn’t stop pushing. It took us a bit of time to acclimatise to the different environment and altitude, but today we found our rhythm and I hope we can keep building from there,” Kraus said.
The Durban Girls’ College learner recorded her third goal of the day when KZN Coastal squeezed past Boland A 1-0 in the late afternoon.
Northern Gauteng A shrugged off a loss to their arch-rivals Southern Gauteng A on day one to record a 4-1 win over Southern Free State A.
When they walked out to face the defending champions, the Mmamorena Manthata-captained side had clarity of purpose.
“I think, as a team, we kept the vibe up; nobody dropped their head because of yesterday’s result. Everyone kept their chin up. At the end of the day, one bad game doesn’t mean a bad tournament,” Arista van Zyl said after the tie.
Sinoxolo Mbekeni, the Northern Gauteng A coach, felt that his side’s loss to Southern Gauteng A in the Jukskei derby had more to do with mindset than skill.
“Yesterday, we were uptight before our match against Southern Gauteng A. We were going up against a side with players they meet at school level, and instead of focusing on our gameplan and skills, we became reactionary,” he said.
Van Zyl opened the scoring for Northern Gauteng A with a field goal in the 12th minute. It didn’t take long before she struck again to place Southern Free State A firmly on the back foot.
“I liked the second goal better because we started from the back and had a great build-up. It was completely a team goal,” she shared.
Van Zyl is currently the only player with a hat-trick to her name and is the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals. Hot on her heels are Coastals’ Ruby Kraus and Bianca Rees-Gibbs, of Southern Free State, with four goals each. They are followed by Gemma Purcell (Western Province B), Ella Shuttleworth (KZN Inland A) and Hannah Smyth (Southern Gauteng A) with three goals each.
The prolific Northerns’ striker summed up her approach, saying: “When we started playing, my coach told me, ‘If you buy a lotto ticket, you can win. So, if you keep taking the shots, you can score goals. If you don’t take the shots, you don’t score.'”
Their victory against Southern Free State A lifted Northerns into second place in Pool A, tied with Southern Free State on points but with a better goal difference. Southern Gauteng A is top of the pool standings.
RESULTS
KZN Coastals A 8-1 Northern Free State
Southern Gauteng B 0-0 Boland A
KZN Inland A 2-2 Eastern Province A
Western Province A 0-1 Southern Gauteng A
Northern Gauteng A 4-1 Southern Free State A
Border A 1-3 Western Province B
Boland A 0-1 KZN Coastal A
Northern Free State 1-3 KZN Inland A
Day 3 Fixtures
08:45 – Southern Gauteng A vs Western Province B
10:10 – Southern Free State A vs Western Province A
11:35 – Border A vs Northern Gauteng A
13:00 – KZN Coastal A vs Southern Gauteng B
14:25 – Boland A vs KZN Inland A
15:35 – Western Province B vs Western Province A
15:50 – Eastern Province A vs Northern Free State
